ROAD safety zones could soon be put in place at schools in the town.

Calls for the measures are being made after incidents of children getting hurt outside St Joseph’s Catholic College, with complaints being made by nearby residents and the college.

While measures can vary, school safety zones are a stretch of road immediately outside a school where the speed limit is 20mph and no vehicles can stop or park during certain times.

Swindon borough councillor Junab Ali, (Lab, Central) will demand action is taken at Thursday night’s full council meeting.

Coun Ali said: “This isn’t just a problem in my ward, it is a problem all over Swindon.

“Do we really have to wait for someone to die, or for a parent or a child to get knocked over before we do something about this?”

The councillor added there would be further health benefits from the zones as traffic can increase by 43 per cent during rush hour.

“Something needs to be done to address the impact of so many vehicles on the road just outside a school,” he said.

“If children and families feel safer when travelling to school, then they will stop driving, and they will start walking or cycling or taking their scooters.

“The children will then be fitter and healthier and become more independent.

“Air pollution would also then go down if there were fewer cars on the roads, the air quality would go up, and it is better for everyone. We need to make sure the area around the schools are safer”.

Karen Wilkinson, Deputy Director of Finance and Operations at the college has backed the plan.

“Anything that makes the area safer for our children is a benefit,” she said.

“We have had a couple of incidents of children on their bikes getting hurt because of the way some of the markings are placed around the school.”

It has been a recurring problem around St Joseph’s in particular for a number of years, with suggestions that it could be down to the layout of the roads in the area.

There may also be some confusion caused by the road markings for pedestrians and drivers outside the school, which could be causing further issues during rush hours.

The motion on the agenda said: “ This Council requests that the Cabinet Member for Strategic Infrastructure, Transport & Planning submit a report to the Cabinet that investigates how school safety zones could be delivered in a more timely fashion to a wider number of schools.”